BLAH

THE EXECUTIONJune 17, 2002

Welcome to the first edition of the Execution in over
2 years! If you ever read the old Execution, please
disregard every single word that I wrote because I did
not know my ass from 3rd base. I was looking through
some of my old columns I have saved and I really can
not beleive some of the awful ideas I had. I would
share them here, but I am trying to make a good
impression.

Anyway, before I start, let me briefly tell you all a
little about myself. If you are not interested, just
skip on down to the next paragraph. My name is Joel
Zimmerman and I am 18 years old from Louisville, KY
and am a freshman at Miami University. I write under
the name ZIM81, 81 because that is my number from ice
hockey. I watched wrestling for years as a little kid,
but quit right around the time Hulk Hogan's feud with
Sid Justice was over. I got hooked again when I
watched the King of The Ring PPV where Billy Gunn won.

But enough about me. Lets get to the news.

Obviously the biggest story of the recent week is
Steve Austin's problems with WWE management and his
consequential walk out. At first, this seemed like an
incredible work and I thought it was just the thing
the WWE needed to turn the ratings around. Last
week's RAW was suprisingly good and would have been
with or without Stone Cold. But the only people who
knew the show was good were the people who were
watching it. Yes, it was good enough for me to make
sure I tuned in this week, but what about those people
who did not watch; how should the WWE get these
viewers to come back and see how much better the
product has gotten?

The WWE needed an angle that would trancend the 4
hours of main programing they have a week. When
Austin's story first broke, I thought that this was
just the angle they needed to get people to come back
and check out the WWE again.

The fact was I was realitively sure that this was an
angle. When the WWE has real problems with their
employees, they usually do post an article about it on
WWE.com, like the situation with Scott Hall for
example. But, unlike Hall's article, the Stone Cold
article was very specific and that is uncharacteristic
of a shoot. This would be perfect. Stone Cold, the
true bad ass, does not feel like working so he simply
leaves. Then, he comes back, yells at Vince for
running the company that Austin built into the ground
and we are one stunner away from Vince/Austin 3.
While we have seen this before, it is a tried and true
formula and with new stars like Brock Lesnar and Eddy
Guerrero to side with Vince, we could actually have a
pretty hot feud on our hands. This, coupled with
NWO/Booker T and Golddust, and we have a product that
leaves fans exicited for when Monday Night rolls
around.

Then I saw Confedential.

What we saw on Confedendial was a Jim Ross, not good
olde JR, who was genuninely hurt by the actions of his
friend. We even saw him take some of the blame for
the hard times the WWE has fallen on. Both Vince and
Jim Ross painted Austin as the true bad guy in the
situation. Not a bad ass who walks out on his job,
but an inconsiderate person who abandons his friends
and his fans. This convicned me it was definitely not
a work; if they wanted Austin to come back and boost
ratings, he would have to be a bad ass, not an
asshole. When Jim Ross, the biggest face around to
casual wrestling fans, says that Stone Cold is a jerk,
I can see no possbile way to bring Stone Cold back as
a face and a heel Stone Cold is obviously no good to
the WWE at this time.

However...

While at this point I was convicned that the situation
was a shoot, the WWE did cover it's ass. While they
did paint Austin as the bad guy, they also sympatized
and showed why he might have been distraught. While
this is certainly no excuse to walk out on your job,
if they wanted Austin to look like a total ass, then
they wouldn't have taken any of the blame at all.
But, in hopes that the WWE and Stone Cold might be
able to work out their troubles, they left that little
bit of sympathy; a glimmer to us that Austin still has
a good heart, just a sometimes misguided one, and a
glimmer to Austin that the WWE is still his home and
family, and that while all families have problems,
they can be worked out.

Then the sky fell.

Stone Cold beats up his wife. What in the hell is
going on here? This act of cowardace is inexcusable.
Reports surface of Stone Cold's image being removed
from WWE.com and from the Raw Intro (but stangely,
Stonecold.com still works). Yep, Austin is done. I
would have bet a million dollars that Stone Cold Steve
Austin would never be mentioned of WWE television
again. And good riddance. If you beat up your wife,
you should not be heralded as an athlete who is
supposed to beat up 300 pound wrestlers.

But through all of this, the WWE accomplished their
main goal. I could not wait for Raw this week. I
wanted to see not only how they handeled the Austin
situation, but I was also was interested in the
NWO/Booker T angle. With all of the attention being
paid to the WWE this week over the Austin situation,
this week's Raw should bring in killer ratings. They
need to strike now with one of the best Raw shows in
recent history.

And they did it.

It is 11:08 PM eastern time and I am still shaking
from the excitement of the Rock's return. This show
was executed perfectly from start to finish. I am
actually excited about King of The Ring and might
actually make an effor to see it, as for the last few
PPVs I was content to read the recaps on the internet.
The only part I disliked was the Undertaker/ Hardyz
segment, but they have to have their World Champion
some where in the show. Hopefully, the WWE will wise
up and get the belt off him, but that's another column
all together.

The WWE pulled it all together when the needed to.
When I saw Vince's Austin tribute at the beginning, I
was about to get very pissed, as I thought the whole
thing was a work and if they worked the Austin/Debra
beating that actaully involved the REAL POLICE, that
is going way to far. But, appropriately, they did not
even mention that and simply used the Austin walking
out story to attract ratings and keep viewers with the
show. They did a good job with that, constantly
teasing the fans who were waiting for the glass to
break and Austin to come out. Bringing The Rock back
was great idea and shows the consumate professional
that The Rock is and in his shoot-like promo at the
end, he really seperated the 'boys in the back' from
Austin, and Austin from the fans.

The Rock has no reason or responsibility ever to
wrestle another match again. His popularity carried
the WWE for over a year and I certainly do not blame
him for pursuing oppertunities outside of wrestling.
The fact that he would come back and vocally state his
devotion to the WWE shows his professionalism and even
though he is not the greatest wrestler in the world,
old Flex Kavana sure knows how to entertain a crowd.
He's okay in my book.

Well, this news update turned into a rant, but I guess
the only big news going around was the Austin
situaion, so I've got all of my bases covered.

If you are reading this, I want to sincerely thank you
for coming back to The Execution. Send me feedback.
I usually am a lot more vulgar, funny and self
promoting, but I was feeling especially inspiried
about the Austin situation, not to mention long
winded. Next time, I will try to use the F word more
because it's so darn entertaining.